A Study Of British Decolonization Policy In Southeast Asia

The British empire was once one of the largest maritime empires in the world.The process of her collapse is as worthy of careful study by scholars as to the history of her development from an island country to a global empire.British politicians had to face a new era of anti-colonialism,crippled by the Second World War and especially by the Suez Crisis.In this era,more than 20 colonies achieved independence through decolonization at the time when the Macmillan government was in power.And the "Greater Malaysia" was the British government’s decolonization policy in Southeast Asia to achieve the independence of Singapore,Brunei,North Borneo and Sarawak with the support of the independent Federation of Malaya.Nonetheless,“Greater Malaysia” was not a creature of Macmillan’s Cabinet,but a continuation of the unfinished work of previous governments.The vein in the main text of this research is based on the "objective" and "how to do" of decolonization and why the "Greater Malaysia" progressively leads to "failure".Firstly,investigating the objective of decolonization is analyzed from the macroscopic and microscopic perspectives respectively.Afterwards,by the changes of situation in Southeast Asia,analyze how the objective evolved into the solution—— "Greater Malaysia".After all,it considers how Her Majesty’s government cooperated with the nationalists after the construction of "Greater Malaysia",to realize the decolonization of the Southeast Asian colonies.The discussion in this vein will be able to analyze how the British politicians dealt with the decolonization of Southeast Asia left by the previous government.In conclusion,it attempts to furnish readers with a clear and macroscopic historical perspective of "Greater Malaysia".First of all,the author takes readers’ eyes temporarily beyond the "Greater Malaysia" in part one,to discuss what other factors have shaped it.In the second part,the author analyzes the “congenital defect” of "Greater Malaysia"--the inequality of “association between five territories”,and how it drags "Greater Malaysia" into the quagmire of failure.Lastly,try to explain the essence of "Greater Malaysia"--the decolonization of the British government’s policy which is trying to retain great power of the United Kingdom after the Suez Crisis.Ultimately,this dissertation explores the historical facts behind "Greater Malaysia" from macro and micro perspectives.The study of the case of "Greater Malaysia",lays a foundation for the historical research of the post-war decolonization policies of the British Empire.